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Finding Yourself in Fading Chlorophyll

The chlorophyll, which has been covering their color, is fading. Soon, the maple leaves will be candy-apple red. Oaks will darken into deep purple, bright orange, or brown. Elms and birches will turn mustard yellow.

It’s amazing watching the leaves change. They show us their true colors then they drift down from their branches.

We go for a walk and see edges losing chlorophyll. On our next walk, the leaves have more of their natural pigment. “Look at me! I’m orange!” They let me take pictures, those patient leaves, before letting go. We find them in the grass the following week, pick them up, bring them home and give them a place of honor in our mini-pumpkin pile.

I’ve always loved autumn.

This year, though, for the first time, I realize I’m a leaf. I thought I was green but that was just hiding my true colors. What are they? I’m not sure. But I’m ready to find out.

My Sunday thoughts in 200 words or less.

Do you ever wonder who you are underneath? Have you ever thought that the roles you play in life might be your chlorophyll? If you showed your true colors to the world, what would happen?

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40 thoughts on “Finding Yourself in Fading Chlorophyll”

I’m wondering about it all the time… and to be honest I’m afraid and equally curious to find out what my true colors are – sadly, fears win so far And I keep wonderfing if I ever dare to see and show the colors hidden within. And I can’t even guess whom I might be then or what could happen… so I keep being scared of disappointment it might bring – still the question lingers – is it really better to live like this and always be this green leaf? I don’t have any answers yet…

Thanks a lot for such a thought-provoking post & have a great week ahead 🙂

Beautiful poetess. 🙂 Is it creative types who think too deeply about this stuff? Scared of what we might find? I know that fear well. A leaf only shows its true colors when it’s ready. When the temperature and lighting is just right. And, even then, it takes many weeks. And sometimes they seem brighter or less colorful from one day to the next. Green is a lovely color and it will fade to reveal what’s underneath when the tree doesn’t need it anymore. ❤

Beautiful description of the leaves. Nice analogy too. I adore Autumn; the smell of the moistness rain gives, the crunch and rustle of leaves underfoot and the plethora of burnt colours desperately clinging to the last bit of warmth. I HEART it!

Oh Sarah – what a lovely poignant thought! I also dearly love autumn for its transitions and crispness. (Do you find yourself reluctant to use “fall” instead of “autumn?” I do… it seems to cheapen the season.) My husband told me recently that the tree actually sucks the chlorophyll back into itself – which is another odd thought – the green really being recycled season after season. It makes me think of old habits and thought patterns and how we end up trudging through them again and again in different seasons of our lives.

Ha! Yes, I am hesitant to call this season ‘fall’. I tend to use ‘autumn’. After the autumnal equinox, it’s…autumn. ❤ I think the chlorophyll fades because it doesn't get enough sunlight and water to keep producing the green pigment but I'm not sure if it returns to the tree. ? Oh, the cycle of the seasons and our old habits and thought patterns. Trudging through them in the seasons of our lives. Yes. So much, yes.

I love the idea of leaves shedding the green to become their true colour(s). I never would have thought of that. It’s inspiring to think about because, as you pointed out, the true colours are so much more beautiful and vivid.

What a beautiful and thought-provoking post. I was my true colors until a certain age, I guess we all are, and only recently have I begun to reveal them once again – to me and the rest of the world. I realized one thing – my true colors are pretty awesome. I bet yours are too.
I like autumn, although I wish it were warmer.

You know, I just commented that it wasn’t until I got older that I thought of this but now, in reading your comment, I’m wondering if that wasn’t because I was my true colors when I was younger. I’ll have to think on that. Your true colors are awesome. I hope mine are but I’m headed on a road trip to see them. Thanks, Ula. ❤

Wonderful thought bubble, as beautiful as a leaf in true colors! I never thought much about this process, but it’s really mind-opening to realize that leaves are showing their colors in fall. Is that what middle age is? A lessening of the chlorophyll clutter in our lives, a letting go of youthful green to accept our true inner vibrancy? I hope so!

Ha! It’s very possible that this is what middle age is. 😀 Clearing out the clutter, getting rid of things we no longer need, looking around and letting go of that lovely spring green that maybe doesn’t look so good with our complexion anymore. I hope so, too.

You have so many great reflections and metaphors. I think I know my colors (burnished orange with golden highlights) but it’s always good to examine them once in a while. The problem is, I keep finding more white as of late…

Thank you. ❤ And, wow, you do know your color! How gorgeous. Burnished orange with golden highlights. I sincerely hope my colors are as interesting and beautiful as yours though, if they’re not, I’m ready to know that, too. Hmm… White. Isn’t that the combination of all colors together? That’s not a bad color to be–you’re a rainbow of sorts.

You have me fascinated by this post Sarah. Our true colours. If we are looking at who we are inside then we are looking at identity – what makes us unique from others. Not what we are but who we are. I have eaten dinner trying to work out what colour I would put on myself. Then I started to think that your identity changes over time so therefore your colours must change but they are all true colours for the time they were your identity. Something though keeps us continuous between past, present and future despite our identity changing between them maybe multiple times. Perhaps it is this something that are out true colours but I will need to reflect deeply to work out what they might be.

Ooh! I’ve fascinated you. I like the sound of that. It really is interesting, though. Identity. Who we are. And now you’ve got me thinking… Do our colors change as we change? Because we are always changing. But, again, returning to the fact that we are still ourselves, we must have “true colors” that are hidden under layers of life and experiences. I have to reflect now, too…

Ponder away. It’s working out what they are. Reading an interesting book by Sheila Heti called “How should a person be?” It is a hybrid book which is part literary novel, part self help, part philosophy and combines fiction and memoir in a really interesting manner. It also examines these questions.

I love this post, Sarah. The photograph of the beautiful leaves changing colour, your wonderful choice of words weaving magic, and the depth of your contemplation. We don’t have autumn in Brisbane the way you do there. Our trees are mainly evergreen. We have few trees with leaves that change colour and fall. One day I will enjoy the magic of a special fall I’m sure.
I wonder, though, are the colours not true for the leaf, as they are for ourselves, whatever time it be? Just because the colours are different now from what they were before doesn’t make them any less true then, or now. We can only be who we are in the present moment. That is my colour. I paint it with now.

Thanks, Norah. ❤ Oh, you would love all the colors of the leaves here — browns, reds, oranges, yellows — and so many shades of each.

Hmm…interesting. So the true color IS the chlorophyll? At least during the summer? Because that's naturally what a leaf is during that season. That does make sense for being in the present moment. Maybe I'm just ready to stop producing chlorophyll and see what's there. That's my now. 🙂